NARUC to Congress: Restore Lifeline Subsidy Level, Protect ETC Designation
Haggling over details of a compromise COVID-19 aid bill that includes $10 billion for broadband (see 2012010039) delayed the measure’s filing Monday. NARUC President Paul Kjellander urged lawmakers to ensure aid legislation fully funds Lifeline and to reject bids to…
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eliminate the eligible telecom carrier designation procedure in some recent broadband connectivity legislation. Restore the monthly Lifeline voice subsidy to $7.25, Kjellander said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and their minority party counterparts. The FCC just cut the monthly subsidy to $5.25. The National Lifeline Association and Assist Wireless seek an emergency court stay (see 2011250064). “The impact of this decline in support is potentially severe,” Kjellander said. “When the agency sought comment on reinstating full financial support for voice-only service in rural areas only, the record showed widespread support for restoring full subsidies for voice services.” Several “well-meaning measures to subsidize broadband service or provide incentives for additional broadband infrastructure roll-out unfortunately significantly reduce oversight of each company’s use of federal subsidies as well as oversight of the actual service provided to consumers” by eliminating the ETC designation requirement, Kjellander said. “NARUC’s state commission members usually conduct those designations. But they also do a lot more. Much of carrier fraud and abuse in several FCC subsidy programs has been uncovered by NARUC’s state commission members.” NARUC opposed measures that don’t include the ETC requirement, including the Rural Connectivity Advancement Program Act (S-4015), Expanding Opportunities for Broadband Deployment Act (HR-7160) and Rural Broadband Acceleration Act (HR-7447/S-4201).